Future Of Work in an AI Era Entrepreneur's Tech and Innovation Summit in Bengaluru, explored how awareness and a hunger for upskilling can actually help employers and employees pivot the complexities which arise with technological boom.

In the age of artificial intelligence (AI), businesses are responsible to help employees learn new skills. Skill set is an asset. This asset needs constant upskilling as it helps simplify and improve processes that would otherwise be tedious, difficult, and time-consuming. For employers considering whether their workforce needs to upskill and reskill, the challenge is to understand what skills exist in the organization. Spotting the requirement of the right skills will map the jobs of tomorrow.

Entrepreneur's Tech and Innovation Summit in Bengaluru, explored how awareness and a hunger for upskilling can actually help employers and employees pivot the complexities which arise with technological boom.

Broadly, the AI skill set can be divided into foundational and application. "The broad based skills are probably waning. However, the skills required to consume AI and benefit from it, are right now in demand. If I had to put a number to it, I would say 20 percent would be in the base kind of foundational stuff and 80 per cent in the application of AI perspective," said Narayana Shankar CTO and Head of AI, Data Engineering and Analytics, Zensar Technologies.

As different organizations are developing AI products, one question that looms large is… how to enable the rest of the business with those AI products? Explaining this, Ramgopal Prajapat Senior Vice President, AI & Data Science, All Cargo Logistics, said, "For us, we focus on leveraging AI for employees' day-to-day operation. When it comes to using AI tools in the day-to-day operations or work, sometimes employees have their own resistance or hesitation in using these. So, our main focus is on educating our employees, this helps us navigate the potential challenges when it comes to embracing new skills."

One needs data for everything. The three primary pillars of a strong AI foundation are data engineers, data scientists and data science engineers. "The role of data engineers is to get the pipeline going. Data scientists and data science engineers actually work on the models and deliver the results. These primary roles are a must," said Kanhaiya Gautam CTO, Lentra.

As technology is rapidly evolving, the basic foundation lies in utilizing what's available. "The first thing I would say is people should start using AI tools to boost their productivity. Using the freely available AI tools is the first skill. For different verticals, there are different tools. Identifying the right tool for honing one's skills is non-negotiable now," said Kavya Vivek Kadapatti CTO, Viki.AI.

As workers and organizations carry out their daily tasks, many of them may discover that AI and other new technologies have so significantly altered the nature of work, that in effect they're in completely new fields. The only way to thrive is to upskill.